


Diversion

by Rioghna



Series: In another world [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Stargate Universe
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Crossover, F/M, another world - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-03 17:44:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6620221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rioghna/pseuds/Rioghna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another World take on the Incursion story line</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Taken

** **

 

 

Diversion

Nicholas Rush slipped out of the building and stood for a moment breathing in the familiar air. While he was used to the recycled air of _Destiny_ , it was nice to be able to step out for a breath of what was definitely fresh Earth air (okay there was that one time when he had managed to get that scientist who was allergic to every plant that grew, but in general). Still, he wanted to get back to the ship. Mandi was waiting for him. In fact, with her around, he was even more reluctant than usual to spend time away on Earth. It didn't help that today he was occupying Telford's body.

No one's body ever fit particularly well, except for Gold's, but, well they were so very close. But Telford's body somehow always set oddly on him. The man had managed not to be as annoying as usual recently, but he put that down to having his own personality back. It didn't make him _like_ the man. So as soon as he finished, he could get back to Mandi. They had plans.

 

_"I don't remember being such a horny bastard before I met you," Nick said as Mandi collapsed, panting beside him in the bed. It was most definitely their bed, the other scientist had decided._

_"I don't mind. I have years to make up for," Mandi whispered, cuddling close._

_"Well, we will just have to keep working on that," Nick said, rolling over on top of her._

_"As much as I would love to continue this,right now, I believe that you are expected in communications pretty soon, and I'm supposed to be helping Chloe get ready for TJ's baby shower."_

_Nick groaned. As much as he loved that Mandi was making friends, it ate into the time they had together. He wanted her to be happy. On the other hand, she was right, and Young would be yammering at him if he wasn't there. "Still," he told her, "there is enough time for a shower."_

 

They had parted in the corridor outside the communications room with a promise by him to call Gold and see how Belle was. He hated calling the imp, but the dratted sorcerer refused to join the modern age and get email. Mandi promised that when he got back, she would make up for any discomfort this caused him, in her own special way. Rush was convinced that the two women were conspiring to improve their relationship, while he and Gold both felt they were perfectly fine, even more so if they could avoid one another as much as possible. On the other hand, he admitted, if only to himself, that he was curious and perhaps just a little concerned. The baby that she was carrying could be, at least biologically, his, and...despite what he tried to tell himself, it did matter to him, even if it was only knowing that they were okay.

At least it would be mildly amusing to call and annoy his 'brother' from Telford's mobile phone. There wasn't much else to amuse himself with. The new report on the status of _Destiny's_ engines was something any of even the least competent members of the science team could have delievered. But they would insist he drag himself away from his work and halfway across several galaxies.

The only partially enjoyable part of the entire venture was getting to spend lunch discussing the latest attempts to decode the key to the core systems with Doctor Daniel Jackson. The man was actually as brilliant as anyone Rush had ever met, and had instantly been able to grasp the double meanings inherent in some of the symbols that Rumplestiltskin had pointed out to him. In fact, he had been able to expound on them. Now they needed a way of transferring the data. Their current method relied entirely too much on things subject to human error.

Before he could distract himself further, he pulled Telford's mobile out of his pocket. That was another issue with someone else's body, they never kept things in the right pockets. Rush spent the first part figuring out where things were, not to mention how few of them carried anything useful like a notebook or pen. Not for the first time, he wished he could figure out how to transport the notes he took using his new found 'talent' without doing something unfortunate. At least he had managed not to turn anyone into anything recently, especially Young, who was suffering from pre fatherhood jitters.

Trying to wipe all those thoughts out of his mind while he concentrated, he dialed a number than he had memorised, making a mental note to delete it from the history when he finished the call.

 

"Nick, I need..." Mandi started as she saw her lover step into the mess.

"Not yet, Doctor Perry," the man who she suddenly knew was not Nicholas Rush said with his voice. "Sorry. I just came for a glass of water and maybe something to eat if there is anything that actually requires chewing here." The man was smiling at her with Nick's face, but even the smile was a little...she could see the difference, though it would be hard to explain to anyone else. Nick just didn't smile like that.

"Good luck with that," she said, and started to leave.

"Doctor Perry, I get the feeling that you and I got off on the wrong foot with each other. I'm not completely sure of everything I did before. They said I might have some residual memory issues because of the head injury, but I would really like to apologize, just in case," he told her with what he probably thought was a charming smile. Actually, it might be charming, either in his own body, or most definitely if it was actually on her lover's face, but this was neither.

"That's all right," Mandi told him. She knew a lot more than Telford thought she did. Actually she probably knew more than _he_ did, considering. It didn't make her like or trust him, not until she was sure which asshole tricks were his and which were caused by the brainwashing. "It's actually that if you were Nick, I could give you these numbers. I've got to get to Observation to help Chloe with stuff for TJ's shower."

"Oh yeah, the baby shower. I...."

"Yes, if you don't want to be here for it, I'd eat and run," Mandi advised smiling. She knew just enough about that as well, to know that Telford was really uncomfortable, especially with his role in encouraging the breakup of Young's marriage. But she wasn't going to involve herself. Instead, she just said goodbye, and headed for the observation deck to help move the gifts and things to the mess.

 

"Who is this?" the sharp, very familiar voice growled at Rush out of the mobile phone.

"Well, it sure as hell isn't Colonel Telford," Nick growled back. He could hold his own with his prickly opposite.

"Rush?" the imp asked.

Putting his mouth as close to the phone as possible, and making sure he was alone, he said quietly, "Rumplestiltskin."

"Wasn't expecting to hear from you," the sorcerer said, but there was an ease in his tone that hadn't been there before.

"Wasn't planning on contacting you, but Mandi wanted me to check on Belle for her," he said. _And for you_ , a voice that sounded entirely too muck like the damned imp reminded him. But it seemed a good enough answer for Gold. It wasn't like either of them was going to push it too much. They were both experts at ignoring complicated emotional issues.

"Ahh, yes. You can tell Mandi that both Belle and the baby are doing well. Doc says that she is within normal parameters, whatever that means," Gold told him. Of course being a medieval sort of imp, Rush was unsurprised that his counterpart was vague at best about modern medicine.

"It means all is going well and the baby is growing properly," Rush told him. He wasn't above a little poking at the technologically illiterate sorcerer, from a safe distance, of course. Though he was rather curious how he would react when someone, probably Mary, explained Lamaze to him.

"I was able to work that out for meself," Gold snapped. "I didn't need a dwarf or some machine to to tell me that much. My magic can do that just as well, if not better."

"And did you need them to tell you the sex, or..." Rush continued, not letting him get going.

"Colonel Telford," someone called. Rush registered it, but ignored the person in favor of the conversation he was having.

"It's a girl, and no, I...."

"Colonel." This time the address was accompanied by a hand on his shoulder.

"Do you mind?" Rush turned and snapped. "Can't you see that I'm on a..." Before he could really register what was happening, he was seized and injected with something, causing the phone to drop from his hand.

"Come on, Telford. Someone needs to see you right now," the man said.

In a small pawnshop in Storybrooke, Maine, Rumplestiltskin looked at the phone and cursed.


	2. Scramble

 

 

The knock on the door brought General Jack O'Neill up from the pile of paperwork he was failing to fill out, or review, especially the budget. "Come in," he said, in his most magnanimous voice. "And please tell me that it's something more important than paperwork. Nice alien invasion maybe."

"General O'Neill," Peterson said, coming into the office slowly.  No one voluntarily interupted the general send his paperwork, it tended to sour his mood. In an ideal world, liason officer was a simple job, coordinating with those on the far off Ancient spaceship, or based on other worlds with their families on Earth, while keeping everything top secret. It really was a great theory. Of course that was before Mr. Richard Gold, Doctor Nicholas' Rush's long estranged brother had felt the need for a reconciliation. Doctor Rush was a difficult man to deal with on the best of days, but Gold...that man was another matter entirely. Not only was he _not_ easier to deal with, there was something about him that made Peterson think that he was probably the more dangerous than Rush. Maybe it was the expensive suits or maybe it was the fact that he managed to make O''Neill jump. Peterson did know one thing, getting between them was to understand what it felt like when the irresistible force met the immovable object.

"Well, Peterson, where's the fire?"

"Sir, Richard Gold is on the phone for you. He says something has happened to his brother."

 

Richard Gold, otherwise known as Rumplestiltskin, was glaring at the phone in his hand while Belle made tea. She knew that, despite what he said, the sorcerer did genuinely care about what happened to the scientist, though he would be the last one to admit it to anyone.

"O'Neill, about time, too. What are you doing about my brother?" he growled. "Yes, I bloody _do_ know something happened to him! We were on the telephone when it happened." He paused as Belle brought the cup to him and laid a reassuring hand on his arm. "You do that," he said, slamming down the hand set.

Belle just waited. "They are going to check on him. The general assured me that he will call as soon as he has some answers, not that he _will_ have any answers. Whoever it was, wasn't _after_ Rush, they were _after_ Telford. Pity I couldn't just..." He waved a hand dramatically. "Not that any of this concerns me," Rumplestiltskin said grumpily.  Belle just nodded and ducked her head to hide the smile.  She knew her husband. 

 

"Sir?" Peterson said cautiously as he stepped back into the General's office. He hated being the bearer of bad news, especially when O'Neill was already in a foul mood. Nothing quite like adding a civilian to the mix and not just any civilian, but a lawyer, and not just any lawyer, but Richard Gold.

"What do you know?" O'Neill asked.

"At 11:30 am, Doctor Rush used the stones to come and deliver a report to the IGA science committee on..."

"Yeah, yeah, Rush came to Earth to give a science report to a bunch of suits. Telford swapped with him so he could work with Young on the Lucian Alliance's attempt to find another Icarus planet."  

"Okay, well, Rush had lunch with Doctor Jackson, then delivered the first part of the report. Well, actually he gave the first part, insulted the scientists who tried to question him, said they didn't even try to understand it, then took a break, announced he was going out for some fresh air."

"Probably wanted a cigarette. He knows Telford doesn't smoke, but they also hate each other. Continue."

"He didn't come back. When Gold called, I sent someone to check. They found the cell phone open, under a bush. We were looking for him in minutes, thanks to the fact that he was on the phone with Gold at the time. I'll give the guy credit, he was on the phone to us immediately. I thought they didn't get along," Peterson said.

"They're working things out, apparently. Especially now that Mrs. Gold is expecting. I think that's a big part of it. Okay. We need to know what Gold heard on the phone.  We need to get him down here."

 

Nick Rush woke in a cell, in a body that was not his own. It wasn't a good start. Not that it was his first cell, nor, he was certain, was it Telford's. He started to weigh his options. They.had definitely been after Telford, not him. The question was, who was it, and what would they do if they realised they had the wrong person? Plan, he needed a plan, though his head was a little muzzy from the drugs. Fortunately, he had two things on his side. The first, that he would automatically snap back to his own body for at least a short period of time if the ship dropped out of FTL, and the second was Rumplestiltskin. He and the imp might have their problems, but while they might never see eye to eye, they had a connection. Whether they liked it or not, they were stuck together. Besides, the imp wasn't any keener on military men than he was and seemed to take great pleasure in tweaking O'Neill. Rush disliked the general less than most, but knowing that the sorcerer would have been on them immediately definitely made him feel somewhat more confident about his survival.

 

"What do you mean, he _won't_ come?" O'Neill said, looking at Peterson.

"He refused, sir. He said that time is of the essence and he doesn't fly. Also, he won't leave his wife."

"He doesn't fly? I wonder how he feels about teleporting. The _Hammond_ is still in orbit," the general said.

"SIr...I..." Peterson started, but he had known O'Neill long enough to know it was better to stay out of the situation.

"Your probably right, the man is a lawyer. Fine, I'll go meet with him. Where the hell am I going again?" the general asked. At least it gave him an excuse to get away from the budget report he'd been reading.

"Storybrooke, Sir. Storybrooke, Maine. Doctor Jackson has gone to meet the team on the ground. He was still nearby after his lunch with Rush."

"All right then, off to Maine. Better call and let them know we're coming."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this. Hope you enjoy. I'm afraid I'm a bit behind in posting everything due to a horrible accident that befell my keyboard and the wait for a new one. Please leave a comment in the little box.


	3. Strange places

 

 

Jack O'Neill was on his way to Storybrooke as fast as possible. Fortunately, it gave him a chance to take the new prototype out, and get away from the budget report. Even if it ended in Mr. Gold. At least he would finally get a chance to see where the man came from, his natural habitat.

The road to Storybrooke was a narrow winding two lane affair, that led, he understood, to a picture postcard coastal town. "I hate small towns," he said to no one in particular. Actually he didn't...well, there had been that one...before he could think too much about it, he passed a sign that said 'Welcome to Storybrooke'. Past it, a squad car fell in behind him and flashed its lights once. O'Neill pulled over.

"Hello officer," he said, slightly surprised by the fact that it was a young blond woman, and she wasn't wearing a uniform. "What..."

"General O'Neill, I presume. I'm Sheriff Emma Swan. Richard Gold is my father in law," she said.

"Ah, he asked you to keep an eye out for me? How..."

"The government plates were a dead giveaway. Besides, Gold wanted to take Belle home. He worries. He asked me if I could make sure you made it to the house," she told him.

"You call your father in law Gold?" he asked.

"You've met my father in law, right?"

 

"Telford," the man came into the cell and dragged him up to his feet. "Someone wants to talk to you."

Rush looked at him. The man was bigger than he was, even as Telford, who had several inches on him, and while Rush was good in a dirty street fight, the man was obviously trained, probably Lucien Alliance, which also meant alien, unknown planet of origin, and no way for him to judge strength or speed. "All you needed to do was ask, you didn't have to drag me out of an IGA meeting. You don't think that is going to be a little suspicious, do you?" he asked.

"Not my call, I do as I'm ordered. Maybe you should learn a lesson from that."

"I'm a member of the US Air Force, my time and how I spend it isn't up to me. I would have been in contact when I could. They are going to be looking for me now. How the hell am I supposed to explain this?" he asked argumentatively, trying to remember how Telford spoke. He hoped desperately that the ship didn't drop out of FTL right at the moment though.

"That's not my problem though, it's yours," the man, whose name he probably should know, said. Rush knew he should know something about who the other man was and how to talk to him, one soldier to another, but he didn't know any of that so he decided to go for silent and angry. It was safest.

 

The big pink house wasn't what General O'Neill was expecting. To be honest, he wasn't certain what he _was_ expecting, besides trying to pacify an edgy and unfortunately incredibly canny lawyer whose brother, no matter how estranged, had been kidnapped while he was on the Earth, and on the phone with him. That and questioning him to find out anything he had gleaned from his side. He'd be willing to lay a bet that Gold was pretty observant.

"He's definitely been taken, Jack," Daniel Jackson had said while O'Neal was on the way to the air field. "We found Telford's cell under a bush, probably kicked there during a struggle. Last call checks with the brother. Two of them, kind of wish I was going with you."

"Does Gold talk about him?" O'Neill asked. "Face it, Daniel, you are probably about as close to him as anyone. I mean, he and Sam get on pretty well, and MacKay is smart enough to keep their contact down to email after the last time, but..."

"If you are looking for help, I've got nothing. You've at least _met_ his brother." Daniel sighed. "I've tried, once, to ask him. He said they didn't have contact growing up and implied that they did better when they kept the contact they had to a minimum. For what it's worth, I think he likes the wife, Belle, genuinely seems pleased about her pregnancy. That's it though. Hang on." He paused and talked to someone on his need. "They've got the security footage. I'll..."

"Call me back. I'm on my way to the air field."

"I knew you'd find a way to take the new F-302 prototype out," the doctor said good naturedly.

"I'm going to visit an attorney. Picture Rush with a better suit and twice the sarcasm, I had to find something to make it fun."

Realizing that he was wasting time, the General stepped out of the SUV. "This is it, everyone's inside. I've got to get back to work," the sheriff said, shaking his hand but not getting out of the squad car.

"Everyone?" he asked, but she was already backing down the driveway.

 

"And that's adorable, Mandi. I didn't know you could knit," Chloe exclaimed as TJ held up the baby blanket.

"Oh, I..." Mandi started, but then shut her mouth. No one would believe her anyway. "I thought it came out well. I hope..."

"Hey, I hate to interrupt," Colonel Young said, coming into the mess. "That's really pretty. Doctor Perry, can I have a word with you, real quick?"

"Sure, I'll...be back," she said, wondering what had blown up this time. Though it was not usually necessary to get her. Yes, she was Rush's second in command more or less, but Young just usually grabbed whichever member of the science team he could find and let them sort it out.

In the hall, Colonel Telford was still occupying Rush. With some people it was hard to tell, but she knew Nick intimately. She also knew something was wrong, very wrong. "Colonel Telford," she greeted him neutrally.

"You can always tell, how?" he asked randomly.

"I've known Nick Rush since I was in college, and we've worked closely on this project for years, you just move differently. Now, what's gone wrong?"

"How..."

"Rush might be on Earth longer than expected," Young said, always good at cutting to the chase. "So you're going to have to keep things going here."

"What has happened to Nick?" she asked sharply, trying to keep her calm.

"He's been kidnapped, or more specifically, I have, we think."

 

The man that opened the door was not Gold, but O'Neill recognised him from the background check, Neal Cassidy, Gold's son, husband of the sheriff. Not a lot of information on him, a couple of juvie busts, nothing big. Married the sheriff a few years before, but they had been together longer, and had an almost teenaged son. The details of all that were convoluted. Apparently the first Mrs, Gold had absconded with the kid and changed his name. No record of how he got from there to here, or even how he got into the country, but it didn't much matter.

"I'm..."

"General O'Neill, come in. They are in the living room," he said waving the man through into the next room.

 _They?_ O'Neill thought again. _What part of 'top secret' does this man not understand?_ But when he stepped in, he found that they must mean the immediate family. Belle Gold, a pretty young woman who was clearly pregnant, though not at the 'don't give her a sudden shock if you don't want to meet the kid' stage, was in a chair with her feet up on a footstool and clearly not happy as she struggled to be more upright. Gold was pacing the floor, a black look on his face, while a dark haired young man, the grandson, presumably, was sitting close, eating a cookie.

"General O'Neill, welcome. Would you like a cup..."

"Belle, it's not a social call," he snapped.

"Ru...." she started looking at him sharply.

"Of course, dear. Take a seat, O'Neill. This is my wife, Belle, and my grandson Henry, as I'm sure your background check told you. I'll pour you a cup of tea, while you tell me exactly what's happened to my brother and what you are going to do to get him back."

"Right now, we are trying to figure out what happened. Doctor Jackson was on the scene pretty quickly, and he found the cell phone you were talking on. He's reviewing security footage now. But this...situation is sensitive. Can you and I talk privately? I need to question you about what you heard. It will help." O'Neill was trying to walk a very thin line. Gold was read in and presumably his wife knew at least some of it, but it didn't mean he could just speak freely, even in front of the family. Gold looked at his wife, and she nodded, reassuring him that she was fine, no doubt.

"My office," Gold said.

"Henry and I will keep an eye on Mom," Neal said with a smile.

"Really, you keep treating me as if I'm made of glass..."

The commentary continued behind them, what sounded like an old familiar argument. O'Neill followed the man into another room. It looked exactly like he would expect the man's office to look, all wood and leather, hushed and very expensive.

"Drink?" Gold offered, holding up a decanter full of what was probably pretty outstanding whiskey.

"Unfortunately, I'm flying later," the General declined with genuine regret. The one thing that was certain with Gold, it was top shelf.

"Another time," the man said, though with luck, that it would never come to that. Finished with the pleasantries, Gold poured one for himself and sat down behind the desk. "Now..."

"Tell me about the phone call. Why did you call?"

"Well, I didn't call him, that's a cert," Gold said, losing some of his polish. "I didn't even know the blasted man was...around."

"So he called you..."

"Would have to, wouldn't he? He rang up to see about Belle, asked after her health and some other family matters, when someone interrupted him. I didn't hear everything, he does have some rudimentary manners. The man said something, and my brother told him he was interrupting. Then the bloke greeted him again, and he started to give him a bollock...he told him off," Gold revised.

"Nothing unusual then," the General said.

"No, but the man called him Telford. I heard that part. Don't know who that is, I assume it's the name of the man who...well, whatever you lot do. But I definitely heard the name. Can't you just do...whatever it is to bring him back and put this Telford where he belongs?"

"It's not that simple," O'Neal replied.

"Why the bloody hell not?"

"Colonel Telford has been on special assignment, undercover. We aren't sure who has him or why. If they are after Telford, and they realise they have Rush, they might just kill him," O'Neill said. _Or figure they got the prize in the Cracker Jack box, if it's the Lucian Alliance_ , he thought. "We are hoping to be able to assess more soon. But we are doing everything we can to get him back."

"Let me make myself clear then, General. My brother and I aren't close, but he is still my brother, and if anything happens to him, I will make sure that you, and everyone in your organisation, regret it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading this, I hope you are enjoying it. Sorry I've been slow, but I've been down with work and a cold. Please let me know what you think, as always.


	4. Interrogation

 

 

The man half dragged Rush down the corridor. They were on a ship, he could hear the hum of the engines. _No longer on Earth then,_ he said to himself. "I can walk myself, you know," he said as he was shoved forward into the presence of a woman, striking enough, he supposed. "Well? What's so important you have to drag me from an IGA briefing?" Rush growled as he regained his footing. When in doubt, attack.

"You have been...remiss in your contact. We were concerned," the woman said smoothly. Must be Kiva, head of this set of the Lucian Alliance. Rush was wishing he'd paid more attention to things other than the technical information of Telford's debrief. Her gaze was cold, reptilian.

"Sorry, I've been a little busy, what with the wreck and the coma," he bit back sharply. "It slowed me down just a bit." He wasn't entirely certain how sarcasm translated to these particular aliens. He was a scientist not a soldier, but he had to play one long enough to live.

"Yes, about that coma, what happened to you?" she asked, leaning very close to him and looking him in the eyes. He hoped desperately that she was looking to see that his head was intact. Surely Telford wasn't...No, the man was not that stupid, at least for his cover, Rush hoped not. "There was an car wreck," he said simply. "Apparently a couple of passers by pulled me out. They said I might never regain my memory of the accident, the whole day is a blur. Maybe I should be asking you."

"Me?" Kiva asked, genuinely surprised, no famed innocence in her.

"Well, I can't think of anyone who wants to kill me offhand, if it wasn't an accident. At least no one on this side of the universe. Sure, Young hates me, but he would be more likely to take a swing, actually, he has, and Rush is a sneaky enough bastard, but I'm not a threat to him. Besides, they were out of touch with Earth at the time."

"Interesting. I would like to know what you were doing where you were found though. Why were you outside of Boston instead of where I needed you to be?" The good news was she seemed to buying him as Telford, probably because this was one of a number of scheduled 'unscheduled' swaps. Young and Telford needed to exchange data where there was the least potential of moles. It had happened that the IGA scheduled their meeting and needed him, but eventually, something would get to the wrong people and then he might well be done for, or worse. The Lucian Alliance wanted _Destiny_ and there was very little chance of them getting there without his research. Now he just needed something...hmmmm

"Thought I had a line on some leverage against Rush," he said. The worst they could do was go to Storybrooke, most suspicious small town in the world. Besides, chances were good they had heard about his new 'brother'. And she proved him correct.

"The brother, your report said they weren't close."

"They aren't, but I thought I'd better make certain. Rush is a canny...asshole."

Kiva looked at him sharply, then from nowhere, pain and the world went black.

 

"What the hell?" Mandi cried.

"Someone grabbed Rush, but, since he was me, we don't know who they were after," Telford explains. He got the distinct impression that Doctor Perry wasn't going to take this well. Young had warned him that might happen. Amanda Perry had been Rush's student and from what he could remember from her file, it was Rush who had recommended her. She was probably the only friend the irascible Scotsman had. That was _not_ terribly helpful right now.

"There is good news, He was on the phone with his brother at the time, so security was looking for him as soon as the man called," Young caught her up.

"Gold knows?" Mani asked. It seemed to relieve her somewhat. Maybe she was glad she wasn't going to be the one to have to tell him. Clearly she knew more about Rush's brother than he did, which made Young a little uncomfortable. "Why not just switch back?"

"Mostly because we don't know who has him or what they will do when and if they figure out they have the wrong person," the colonel explained.

"So right now, I'm sitting tight," Telford added.

"We should check on when the next time we are dropping out of FTL then," the scientist said, taking off down the corridor, suddenly all business, leaving the two men to trail her. "When can we expect to hear more?"

"Not sure, apparently General O'Neill is going to meet with Mr. Gold. The man refused to come to DC to be debriefed on what he heard."

"Would you? His wife is pregnant," Doctor Perry snapped. "I'll check on the FTL timing then, shall I?" She turned and left. She needed to think. She was trying hard to stay calm. Nick would be fine. If nothing else, they had Rumplestitlskin. Mandi wasn't entirely sure how the sorcerer felt about his 'brother', when it came to emotional honesty, they were a pair, of what, she didn't entirely know. What she did know was that no matter how hard they tried to ignore it, they were alike and connected. Nick had said their upbringings were eerily similar, accounting for the difference in universe, of course. Nick was tougher than he looked, too. Then she started to try to picture General O'Neill in Storybrooke, confronting Rumplestiltskin on his own home territory. That was enough to take some of the terror out of her and replace it with amusement, to keep her from falling into a pit of despair. Mandi was fairly certain that there was very little those two very different men couldn't accomplish, assuming they didn't kill each other first.

 

General O'Neill's phone rang as he was getting up from Gold's very comfortable chair. The man had threatened him, which should have surprised him more than it did. It had been a good, solid threat too. Jack O'Neill had been threatened by the best, he was something of an expert, and done no little threatening himself. Of course, there was not a great deal that he could tell the man, like the fact that the people who took Rush, far from killing him, would much rather have him than Telford any day, especially if they thought they could get the information on the ninth chevron out of him. Instead of worrying about that, he listened to what Daniel Jackson had to say.

"We managed to trace the vehicle that took him to some kind of meeting place down by the docks, but we weren't fast enough. They had a ship, Go'ald cargo ship. Sam's people are fairly certain that they are no longer on the planet."

"Great," O'Neill said, trying to smile as the dark eyes bored into him. That man didn't blink enough.

"What about Gold?  What did he tell you?"

"Oh, nothing much that we didn't know before."

"You're still there," Daniel confirmed.

"Yep."

"And he's standing in front of you."

"Exactly. Can you let me know when you have some..."

"When I can tell you something useful?" The scientist suggested.

"Yeah, that. I'll be leaving here soon," the general said. He hung up to face the strange familiar/unfamiliar man.

"Now, I think it's best you tell me everything," Gold told him conversationally. There was a strange look on his face.

"Yee-ahh, about that. I can't. Planetary security and all that..." He turned as if to go.

"Oh, I think not..." There was some purplish smoke and then nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry it's been a while, but as usual stories run at their own pace. I will be leaving Sunday for a camping event in the woods that I help run, so updates might be a little thin (signal out there SUCKS). So, please leave a comment in the little box, and if you happen to be coming to FSG, well, I'm probably the one in the scarf running like a madwoman. If not, she will know how to find me.


	5. Torture

 

 

Nick Rush woke with a pounding headache and heaving stomach, disoriented but not alone. "Water," he croaked as awareness came filtering back.

"Soon," Kiva said from where she was standing in the doorway watching. "But first, tell me who you are."

"I've told ye..."

"Oh, you've told me whose body you have. You know, I thought you didn't sound quite right. It is hard to get the way another person speaks perfectly without a lot of practice. Then I found out which meeting my men took you from. Colonel Telford has his talents, but I seriously doubt any of them would necessitate his presence at an IGA Science Committee meeting." The large, silent figure next to him dropped down at a signal and applied the Lucian Alliance's answer to a taser to his chest. _Please don't let it be too much,_ he thought. _Hold out until you get your body back. She can have Telford._

 

Colonel David Telford hit the plate to open the door to Rush's quarters. He needed a shower and probably a change of clothes. He'd finished with Everett for now, and the other Colonel was headed to check on the state of his pregnant girlfriend. They had nothing else to do except kill time waiting for news from Earth. Everett had done all right, Telford thought, landed on his feet. It helped ease the guilt that David felt just a bit for his part in helping to drive the wedge further between his friend and Emily, who of all of them was the most innocent.

He was looking around the room, getting his bearings. The rooms were almost exactly alike but something about Rush's quarters was a little off to him.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" Doctor Amanda Perry shouted at him as the door opened and she stepped in.

Then it hit him. That was what was wrong with the room, too much stuff for one person. Those who had been lucky enough had managed to get out with a go bag, but that wasn't a lot. But here, there were books on both sides of the bed, two hairbrushes on a table, and some hastily shed clothes on the floor that he bet if he looked at, he would discover belonged to different people, one male, one female. "I was looking for Rush's quarters. I need a change of clothes. What are you..." Deciding that it wasn't going to earn him any points, he gave up. "You and Rush are living here together," David said finally.

"Yes. There is an empty room down the hall. You _aren't_ sleeping here."

"What does Colonel Young have to say about this?"

"It's none of his business. We are both over the age of consent and neither of us is military personal, and..."

"He doesn't know, does he?" Telford suggested.

Amanda shrugged. "I don't know, and I don't care. What Nick and I do on our own time in our own quarters is no one's business but ours. I suggest you remember that. Here," she said, walking over and pulling some fatigues out and throwing them to him (or at him, he wasn't entirely sure), but her reaction made him a whole lot of sense. She was not just worried about her friend and colleague, she was worried about her partner. It would have to be serious, he'd never known Rush to be involved with anyone before.

"Just remember, if something happens to Nick and you manage to survive, I'll find a way to make it up to you," she said, staring hard at him, hands on hips, until he turned and hurried out the door. It was only when he was facing the closed door that he realised she had put him out without Rush's shower kit. After a short consideration, he decided that he could do without it. It was probably a better idea.

Maybe with any luck, something would turn up soon, or maybe they would just give the order to disconnect. That was definitely not his favourite idea. If Kiva had Rush, and his money would be on her, she would absolutely want the scientist alive. Telford was not entirely sure how long the scientist could carry off pretending to be him, especially when the Lucian Alliance leader was none too happy with him right now anyway, and perfectly willing to use torture. But if she lost Rush because they disconnected the stones, she would certainly take it out on him, fatally so, and while he didn't want to give the Lucian Alliance the scientific wherewithal to get to _Destiny_ , he would like to keep his own skin intact at all costs.

"Colonel Young, Colonel Telford, report to Communications," the radio blurted, interrupting his thoughts.

 

"We can keep this up as long as you would like," Kiva said softly. "Eventually, it will kill you, both of you," she added almost as an afterthought.

How many more times could this body take? he asked himself. Telford was fit, he was a soldier, and he'd been given a full physical after his 'traffic accident'. The henchman gave him another jolt and his body convulsed in pain. He couldn't hold out forever. The question was, which member of the science team could he convince her he was? He couldn't tell the truth, Telford's briefing made it clear what it was that she wanted, she wanted the answer to how to solve the ninth chevron, she wanted _Destiny_ , and while he doubted that she had managed to secure the equipment, not to mention finding another Icarus type planet, he wasn't willing to take that chance, not while Amanda was on board _Destiny_ and potentially in danger. How many more shocks? he thought, convulsing again before blessed darkness fell.

Rush woke as a bucket of water was poured over his head. He opened his mouth and sputtered, but at least he managed to get a little bit of it in him. "I'm no use to you if you kill me, you know," he told her, trying for conversational.

"Perhaps, but then, not knowing who you are, I don't know if you are any use to me now. So, the science team on _Destiny_...well, I am certain you are not Doctor Park, nor this Doctor Perry, since both are female. I am a little curious about Doctor Perry, I don't remember her being numbered among the crew on Icarus, but I suppose that Telford could have failed to mention her."

Rush cursed inwardly. Of course she didn't, since Amanda hadn't been there. They had changed the records, and modified the memories of those on the ship, but of course that hadn't included filtering out, nothing he could do about that at the moment though. "So that leaves Doctor Franklin, though I gather he's in a somewhat debilitated state, Doctor Volker, Mr. Brody the engineer, and Eli Wallace. Unless...is that you in there, Doctor Rush?" Kiva asked, bending down to grab him by his borrowed hair. "Who are you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, and sorry it's been a while (and a good excuse to rematch the episodes). Please leave a comment in the little box.


	6. Direction

 

 

"Brody, Adam Brody," Rush said carefully, gambling. He didn't want her to know who he was, but it had to be plausible. He thought he could probably fake it well enough until they cut the connection. _If they cut the connection_ , the cynical voice in his head whispered. It wouldn't be the first time that Young tried to get rid of him. The question is, would he be willing to sacrifice Telford for it?

"Kill him," Kiva said, starting to turn her back. "Telford is burned anyway."

"Wait," he shouted, tugging away from the large man holding him. "Why would..."

"I have plenty of engineers," she said dismissively.

"Wait, damn you," he cursed. "I'm Rush, Nicholas Rush." It wasn't the move he had wanted to make but it didn't matter, nothing mattered but living long enough to get back to Mandi. How much longer 'til they disconnected? At least this way, he would know how far they had got before he went back. _I can at least salvage something from this_ , Rush thought.

"Now that is much better," she said. "Prove it and you can live, at least long enough to get us to Destiny."

"Prove it how, exactly?" he asked. "I haven't...". It was the look on her face that told him everything he didn't want to know. "You've found another Icarus planet." Dread welled up inside him and he clamped down firmly on it. Now was the wrong time to let his emotions get the better of him. He just needed to wait 'til they dropped out of FTL, tell Young and they would disconnect. They would have to. With his knowledge, he couldn't be left with them, whereas Telford, well, it was his mess, he could clean it up himself. So for now, he just had to stall them and not get killed.

"Definitely Rush," she said with a smile.  "Got it in one." For the first time, he wished there was some way to access the powers that the imp had somehow left him with. He wasn't good at using them, but it was something. He rather thought that Kiva would at least be less dangerous as...well something furry.

 

"What are you planning to do?" Belle asked. She was sitting in the comfortable chair with her feet propped up on an ottoman, and a pillow at her back.

"What do you mean, love? I'm not planning to do _anything_. I'm hardly responsible for what happens to him," he dismissed as he paced across the floor. Belle looked levelly at him. She knew him better than anyone and she knew better.

"Is that really what you are going to tell me?" she asked as Bae and Henry entered from the kitchen.

"Papa," Bae said with a warning look.

"I'm not certain what I can do," the sorcerer admitted. "As near as I can tell from the General, they believe that the person who took him would prefer to have Rush. But they are reluctant to disconnect them without knowing where they have taken him. Ideally they would like to mount a rescue mission for Telford if they can manage it without losing too much information to these Lucian Alliance people." He had a vague impression about them from his time sharing Rush's head, but he didn't want to say anything about that to his family.

The three of them nodded, but they were all still looking at him expectantly. _Damn it all_ , he thought. _I'm not a bloody fairy, I am not in the business of saving people._ _Since when do I, the most powerful sorcerer in this realm, bend to the will of anyone?_

 _Since you married and rebuilt your family?_ his inner voice reminded him.

"I suppose I could go and have a talk with Jefferson," he conceded resignedly.

"It couldn't hurt," Belle said, with a shining smile.

 

"The good news," Daniel Jackson said, "is that I'm almost certain that the Goa'ld mind control technology cannot be used on someone while they are using the communication stones."

"Well, that's one small blessing," General O'Neill said. The two men, along with Colonels Young and Telford, were in the conference room, on _Destiny_ , the one place they were almost entirely certain was free of moles, or at least Lucian Alliance spies. Neither O'Neill nor Jackson particularly cared for the stones, but they had few choices.

"The question is, how long can Rush keep up appearances? It's not personal, David, but if they realise they have Rush..." Young was having a little trouble looking at his commanding officer. It was disconcerting to know the general was in the weedy body of Riley. As if that wasn't bad enough, Daniel Jackson was occupying Sergeant Greer. It was enough make his head hurt.

"Sir, we should just disconnect," Telford said practically. "If they haven't broken him, then I can probably salvage something."

"Then there is the other side of that, if they _do_ realise they have Rush, and you switch back, they'll probably just kill you," O'Neill shot back.

"That's a suicide mission and you know it, David," Young told him.

"It's a risk, sure, but the greater risk is them getting the information that's in Rush's head," Telford replied. "Yes, my preference is to get out of this with my own skin intact, but that might not be possible."

"Let's not jump to conclusions."

"David's right," Young said reluctantly. "But, as much as I hate to say it, Rush is a lot tougher than he looks. The other thing is that Rush is smart, he could give them all sorts of misinformation. He could set their attempts at the ninth chevron back years. Do they have anyone that's even near him?" The colonel directed the question at Telford. "God knows I don't understand what he's talking about half the time."

Telford seemed to be thinking about it seriously. "She has some people working on it, but I think they are mostly focused on duplicating what Rush has already done based on the information they got from Icarus." He looked at the table, not wanting to see the accusing looks. He knew who was responsible for what happened on the base.

O'Neill spoke up, interrupting everyone's thoughts. "How long until the ship drops out of FTL? I'm inclined to let it go that long. David, you should have some time to think, maybe to pin down where they have gone? That will give us something, a starting point. Assuming Rush has a clue about where he is."

"We have about an hour, by Doctor Perry's calculations," Young announced.

"Okay, while we are waiting, David, you are going to wrack your brain. You may not know exactly where they are, but I'm sure you can at least come up with some ideas. We need to be ready to mount a rescue mission."

"She was searching for an Icarus planet. I don't know if she's found one," he responded, but something had clearly triggered.

"You have an idea of where she was looking, don't you?" O'Neill asked perceptively.

Telford thought, trying to get ahold of the elusive thought. He'd been wracking his brain trying to pull what pieces he had together. Something half seen maybe...He focused. "I'm not sure, maybe. I need to look at some star charts."

"That's the spirit," the general said. "Now, I need to get back to Earth. These borrowed bodies never fit right. Daniel?"

"I'll stay. Someone needs to be here. I'll be back after they drop out of FTL. I wanted to look at Rush's work on the ancient computer language. He's had some new ideas recently that are promising, connections to some of the..."

"Yeah, I get it, science geek stuff," O'Neill said, teasing a little.

"Pretty much," Jackson said without so much as an acknowledgement. They had known each other a long time.

 

"Mandi," the man currently occupying the body of Sergeant Greer called. Greer hated the stones with a passion and didn't much care for going back to Earth at all, but he'd apparently been available and it had all been last minute.

"Yes?" she asked. "Sorry, I'm not sure who..."

"It's Daniel," he told her, smiling.

"Daniel, it's good to, well, see you," she said, accepting a slightly awkward hug. "Meeting over?"

"Yes. O'Neill is headed back to Earth, and I'm staying to report back after we drop out of FTL."

"So they're _not_ going to disconnect?" she asked, disappointment warring with concern in her voice. Daniel put a hand on her arm and directed her to a side corridor.

"I know you don't like this. You're worried about Nick. I understand. How are you holding up?" he asked urgently, now that they had some privacy.

"You said it already, worried about Nick. They could be doing anything to him," she whispered harshly. "Why aren't they..."

"Because he could tell us a lot about what the Lucian Alliance is planning. I know you don't like it, or Telford, but..."

"Telford signed on for this, Nick didn't. He's a scientist not a soldier or a spy."

"And you and I both know he's tough enough to get through this. If it's bad, they will disconnect after they switch at FTL," he reassured her. O'Neill had been right earlier, Daniel was the one who was closest to Rush outside of the woman before him, if anyone else was. He was also the only one among Stargate Command who knew about the relationship between the eccentric Scot and his protégée, or rather the only one who knew them well enough to see the changes that had come. But he had no interest in telling anyone. It was none of their business. If the two of them found happiness on the far side of the universe, good for them. But for now, he needed to distract her from her concerns, and he genuinely wanted to look at Rush's new insight about the ancient computer system. Work would keep them both occupied, and not thinking about what was happening. "Meanwhile, show me what Nick has come up with."

She nodded. Mandi knew exactly what Daniel was doing, and she was honestly grateful for it. "Come on, it's fascinating, really," she told him. "We could be close to cracking the code to access the core systems."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while, but I haven't forgotten, I promise. Please leave a comment in the little box.


	7. Destination

 

 

"Possible, certainly. It's easier the second time around," Jefferson said. "I already know where I am going, for lack of a better explanation. But are certain that you want to do this? Especially now, with Belle in her condition?"

"No, not particularly. But I need to know what the possibilities are. Besides, Belle expects..."

"I know you feel like you owe him, because of the baby," Jefferson started, stopping at a glare from the sorcerer.

"What is your meaning, Hatter?"

"Look, old man, I've known you for a long time, and I know how much you and Belle wanted a child. That is hardly a secret. But I can do the math as well as anyone else."

"Then you see..." he said allowing the pretence to drop.

"No, I don't. I don't think you owe him particularly. Regardless of what or how, that child is going to be yours and Belle's, and you will both love her no matter what. But I know that doesn't matter at all either. I think that if you need to do this for you to feel like everything is balanced, then I have your back, as always. Just the two of us, I assume?"

"Bae and Emma need to stay to protect Belle, I will not do it any other way," Rumplestiltskin told him.

"And Belle? How is she with this?" the Hatter asked.

"Do you think I would be here if she wasn't okay with it?" the sorcerer answered the question with a question. Jefferson just nodded. That Belle was probably actually encouraging him didn't need to be said either. They both knew the struggles he went through after centuries of allowing the darkness free range to find the balance.

"That only leaves one question, when do we go?"

 

They dragged Rush into a control room where a screen was scrolling lines of Ancient text. "What's that then?" he said looking at it in passing.

"You should recognise it, it's your work," Kiva said.

He looked closer. It felt odd and he reached for his glasses only to realise that in Telford's body he didn't need them.  Good, since they were with his body. "These figures accurate? I'll need to have a more detailed description if you don't want to blow up the whole planet."

"You will have a completely detailed scan as soon as we arrive. You see, Doctor Rush, we have your work, and now that we have you, we can finally achieve our goals."

"Well enough for you.  Don't suppose it matters that it's hardly an achievement to steal someone else's work," he growled.

"Oh we could get there in the end, we are just taking a shortcut. I think you have a mistaken impression of me," Kiva said stepping closer, but not too close.

 _Mistaken impression of a murdering psychopath, don't think so_ , he thought. "How's that?" he asked aloud.

"I am not some kind of villain, I am just a woman who is trying to do what is best for her people, just like you are."

"Well, except for the part about killing those who get in your way," Rush said. The big bald man who was acting as his guard/jailor stepped forward and punched him hard. Before he could take another swing though, she waved him aside.

"No, we need the doctor in good shape when we arrive," she said.

"Which will be?" Rush asked.

"Soon, actually." As she said it, he could hear the engines ramping down and the screen before them changed to show a planet directly ahead of them. "Very soon."

 

"You are really going to do this, again?" Regina asked as she walked across the lounge, trying not to look as agitated as she felt. "Now?"

"The timing is hardly ideal," the sorcerer agreed. He was sitting next to Belle, holding her hand in that way that usually made the evil Queen slightly ill. He wanted to be as close to his love for as long as he could, especially now.

"It's not just the timing. How about why? This isn't exactly your problem."

"My reasons are between myself and Doctor Rush. Now, the question is, are you willing to help?" the sorcerer asked sharply. It was always good to keep a certain familiar distance. She didn't need to say what she was thinking, he knew, and while he was grateful for the concern, what he needed right now was her agreement.

"All right, I'll do it. But if you don't come back, I'm claiming the contents of your workroom and your magical library."

"Deal," he said. "Now, I've a few things to gather, just in case. It won't be long."

"Take all the time you need," Regina said as she fell into a convenient chair. The formerly evil Queen didn't like it, any of it. She didn't trust those people or their technology, at least most of them, and she certainly had no reason to do anything for Rush. Not that she had anything against him either.

"He will be fine, he always is," Belle said confidently, breaking into her thoughts.

"I'm not concerned with that, I'm merely considering where I am going to find room for all his equipment." They both knew it wasn't the truth, but it was much more comfortable.

"There we are then," Rumplestiltskin said as he came back into the room with a satchel over one shoulder. "As soon as Jefferson is ready..."

"I'll go and make sure he's not off on one of his little mental adventures," Regina said, rising. The last thing she needed or wanted to see was the imp and his lady saying their private goodbyes. It was stomach churning. Instead she started considering what favour she would ask from him for this, maybe something for the wedding...

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you," she said as she met Emma at the back door.

"He's really going to do this then?" she asked, prudently staying outside.

"Apparently. Unless you think you can convince him...didn't think so."

"Not worried about him," Emma covered. "But those folks on _Destiny_ have enough problems without a pissed off sorcerer around."

Before she could say more, the man himself appeared with Belle on his arm. Rumplestiltskin was returning to _Destiny_.

 

The large bald man led him out of the ship and down into a sandy corridor in a stone building that had a strong resemblance to many of the former Goa'ld strongholds he had been in. There was high tech equipment studded about the place and cables running around making a hazard to navigation. "Doctor Rush," a blond man said, approaching him with not a little awe. "I'm so glad to have you here. I have been doing my best to recreate your work, but..."

"Yes, yes, we are all honoured to have Doctor Rush with us, now perhaps we can get somewhere. This is Olan, he's in charge of our science team.   I am going to turn you over to him, but we don't have a lot of time. Any minute they could decided to disconnect you and if I even think that is going to happen, I will kill you, or rather, both of you. Just so we understand each other."

Rush was thinking frantically. He had to find a way to stay alive for as long as he could. He wasn't a brave man, and he was very attached to his own skin, but there was a lot at stake right now, more than just his life, there was Mandi's life to consider. They could never be allowed to make it to _Destiny_. Rush needed to find a way to destroy what they had managed to build. There was no way they would ever be safe as long as the Lucian Alliance had access to any of the research on the ninth chevron. "Well, I'm afraid that there is a problem with your little plan," he said.

"And what is that?" Kiva asked.

"When, not if, the ship drops out of FTL it will break the connection with the stones. Since I was on the phone with my brother when those goons of yours grabbed me, no doubt they alrerady know what you've done."

"And yet, they have chosen not to disconnect you, which makes me wonder why not. Very well though, how long is this disconnection?"

"Not long, a minute or two at most," Rush told her honestly.

"So be it.  Then in that minute you had best make it clear that disconnecting you will mean death for both, understand? Let us see how much they value you, or Telford for that matter," she said with a smirk.

"I do, yes." It wasn't much time, but at least it was something. Planning was difficult, but they would find a way. Mandi was brilliant and besides, they had a potential ace in the hole, magic and Rumplestitlskin. The sorcerer would no doubt find a way to get a message to them. That he would help, Rush had no doubt, though he couldn't have said why or how. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as many of you may know, National Novel Writing Month started today. As usual I am participating, and because I have a slight masochistic streak, I will still be trying to update but I will ask for a little patience. Thank you for continuing to read this little stories, and now, you know what to do. Please leave comments in the little box.


	8. Strategy

 

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1," the countdown ticked as they dropped out of FTL.

"Rush," Young said.

"Nick," Amanda added.

"Listen, Kiva knows. If you try to disconnect us, or she even suspects you are, she'll kill us both. Tell my brother..." Then it was over.

"David?" Young tried again.

"Yeah. Don't know what Rush said, but it's the Lucian Alliance. Paper, I need paper," Mandi handed him a notebook. She loved having the ability to write on paper, though of course most people thought that, like Rush, she was addicted to scrawling things down. Telford grabbed it and began writing. When he finished it, he handed it back to Mandi.

"What is that?" Colonel Young asked.

"I have no idea," the man said. "But there was a scribbled DT at the top of the page. I only hope I got it right. I think..."

"It's a message from Nick,"Mandi said. "He's trying to tell us something."

"Great. Can you figure it out? I mean, I've got just the usual bit of basic ancient, but that..." the colonel commented looking at the strange figures that might as well have been Greek, or Martian.

"He couldn't have written in ancient without risking them being able to read it. But I can decode it, yes, probably. Might take a little time," the scientist said distractedly, taking the paper and turning to go, already ignoring the two men.

"Almost like having two of them. She's got a better disposition, though. Well, mostly," Young said. "Let's go tell Doctor Jackson. He's going to want to get back and report to O'Neill."

 

Mandi hurried back to the quarters she shared with Nick. Of course there was no way to read it for anyone but her. Only she would recognise some of the symbols mixed in with the ancient, and mathematical notation, and connect it. Everyone else would assume it was some kind of personal shorthand that only the woman who had known Rush, and worked with him that long, would be able to read.

She hit the plate on the door of their quarters, paying no attention as she walked through and right into the second shock of the day. "Doctor Perry," Rumplestiltskin greeted her with a polite nod.

"Rumplestiltksin." The relief that hit her almost caused her knees to buckle, but instead, she threw herself into the sorcerer's arms. After a few moments, where she sobbed a little and Rumple patted her awkwardly and told her that everything would be all right, she released him, much to his relief.

He wasn't accustomed to people being glad to see him, or at least not people who were not either related to him, or had called him. He and Jefferson had walked out into the back garden, Belle accompanying him, along with Regina, Bae, Emma, Henry, Mary, and Grace, who would be alternating between the woman who had become quite important to her father, and her foster parents. The truth was, Grace really liked Mary and was actively encouraging the relationship.

His son and daughter in law had agreed to stay with Belle while he was away. It was the only way he would agree to do this. He might feel a little tiny bit of debt to the man, but his first concern had to be his wife and the child they were expecting. Rumplestiltskin was still wondering how he got talked into rescuing the blasted man, when his wife kissed him good bye. Of course, she could always get him to do just about anything. The vaguely green look on Regina's face, and Emma's (both of their usual reaction to the sorcerer and his lady's affection) only made it a little better. Then, with everyone standing well back, he and Jefferson had jumped, and landed on the strange starship on the other side of a distant galaxy.

They had landed in the room that he and Belle had occupied when they had been trapped on the ship. The room was more or less empty. Clearly Doctor Perry had not been living in there. After a couple of minutes that he spent getting his balance (hat travel played merry hell with his ankle), the two of them had, after a careful check of the corridor for flying balls, slipped into Rush's quarters, knowing that Amanda Perry would be there soon enough. Then they could get on with fixing the situation so that Rumplestiltskin could get back home to his wife.

"Is there some for me as well?" Jefferson asked with his usual jaunty smile.

"It's good to see you, too. Both of you. Not that I am not grateful, but why _are_ you here? I admit, I was hoping you could find a way to help but I wasn't expecting..." She trailed off as she hugged the other man.

"Yes, well, Belle was concerned, and as worrying is not good for the wee one, I figured I'd best come and straighten things out, and quickly. I do not have much faith in these military types. Perhaps if it were O'Neill, he seems competent, but I'd not trust Young and Telford to organise a children's tea party. They are better at shooting than strategy. So, since I didn't really have another way of contacting you properly, not being able to count on you being on earth..." The sorcerer shrugged. Mandi wisely held her tongue. Like Belle, she knew better.

"You don't trust _me_ to organise a tea party," Jefferson commented. "But beyond that, I agree with you. I, on the other hand, well, I was driving."

"Organise a tea party, yes, it's the pot I don't trust you with, there's a difference. Now, Doctor Perry, perhaps you had best tell us everything."

 

On a dusty planet far away from _Destiny_ and the woman he loved, Nicholas Rush was back in a body that wasn't his. "I trust you managed to make sure they understand," Kiva said from her position above and behind him.

"Not sure, those little drop outs are short, as you saw. But there is a good chance, if they didn't get the whole of the message and Telford doesn't tell them, we'll have another go, when the ship goes back into FTL. Goes both ways," he told her, not looking up from what was in front of him. The coded message he'd hoped that Telford managed to copy had a very faint 'ten' pencilled in the margin, probably 'ten four', the military code for acknowledgement. At least he hoped so. Now for a little subterfuge.

"I suggest you make sure. When will the ship..."

"I don't bloody know, now do I?" Rush snapped. "I was barely there, and was busy trying to prevent them from getting us both killed. Besides, I wasn't in the gate room near the countdown clock. So, you will excuse me for not having what you want. Now, what is this rubbish?" he said, looking up from the paper and back at the screen in front of him. Stall them, that was the first step, not to mention all he could do until he could find a way to do more. That and pray, something he had not done for more years than he cared to count.

"It's...it's your work.." the man, Olan, said. It was a pity, he didn't have a half bad grasp of the concepts, especially for someone completely untrained. It was almost a shame what he was going to have to do to him.

"No it's not. It may be based on my work, if it was extrapolated by an idiot with only basic maths, and no grasp of physics. It will have to be redone, all of it."

"You are bluffing," Kiva said. "If you think stalling will help..."

"Not bluffing, this is spectacularly complex science, not sixth form calculus. Do you want to get where ye're going or do you _want_ to blow the lot of us to hell?" he said. "I don't much care, but I'm certain you do. Well, I'm waiting de..." He stopped before he could finish that. _Not going to start taking **those** lessons from the damned sorcerer_ , he thought, though the imp had an impressive line in intimidation, not that he would ever tell him that.

"Very well." Kiva nodded. One of the other men grabbed Olan from behind by the neck and began to throttle him.

 _They'll not kill him_ , he told himself. _Not one of their own_. But even as he thought it, he knew better. The man's struggles were getting weaker. _She's not...She is_. "Oh, for god's sake, leave off," he shouted, trying for annoyance.

"You said he was incompetent," Kiva said, without the slightest move.

"He _is_ incompetent, but that doesn't mean he's not the best of a bad lot. I'll need an assistant who is at least passingly familiar with my work, and teachable. Otherwise, I'll have to train someone even more incompetent.  Unless you are hiding a technical genius 'round here that I've not seen yet. How long do you want this to take? Or how long do you think you have before they figure out where I am, or just decide to cut their loses?"

Kiva paused for another moment. Olan's struggles were growing weaker. Finally, she nodded, and the other man dropped him to the floor. The Lucian Alliance scientist gasped for breath. Rush wanted to say something, to ask how exactly killing her own men was doing what was best for her people. _If that's how she treats them, who protects them from her?_ he thought. _That might be the way in_.

"Thank you," Olan whispered when Kiva had left, taking several others with her.   _Yes, speaking of, that little intervention might net me a potential ally_.

"Don't thank me," he snapped. This needed to be played carefully.   'You are just the best she's got, or the least incompetent anyway.  But I'm used to working with that. You are about to get a bare bones, basic, bog standard course in Stargate theory and technology."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, yes, I know it's been forever since I wrote on this. I do always get back to them though. Please, if you are still reading and enjoying, let me know, leave a comment in the little box.


	9. Across the Universe

 

"So, they have Rush in Telford's body, these Lucian Alliance people, and they are threatening to kill them both?" Rumplestiltskin said thoughtfully. "I need to know more about them, how they operate. What can you..."

"I'm a scientist, I don't know a lot about them, just the standard briefing information," Mandi told him. "But I know just the person to get the answers from."

"And would that be the same person who can facilitate my ability to have a certain freedom of movement?" the sorcerer asked with a smile

"Exactly," she replied.

"I like the way you think, Doctor Perry," Rumplestiltskin said with a twinkle in his eye.

"And what about me, what do I do?" Jefferson asked. "Not that I am a lot of help, but..."

"I can probably find you some fatigues," Mandi said a little uncertainly. "But..."

"You manage the costume, doctor, I'll handle the rest," the sorcerer told her.

 

"Telford," Doctor Perry said, as she saw the man who was not her lover walking toward her.

"Doctor Perry, did you...were you able to make something out of...well, whatever it was?" he asked.

"Oh yes," she told him. "It's some very specific numbers on naquadria deposits."

"So they have an Icarus planet, _great_. We did suspect it, good to know that we are right, but not sure..."

"You don't get it, _very_ specific. If you can narrow down the quadrant where they were looking, then I can give Major Carter the information for a scan. It's not like a gate address, but..."

"But only one other planet will match that...like a signature?" he asked, hoping he was catching on. Like Rush, Doctor Perry tended to make him feel like an idiot, and it was not a feeling that he liked.

"Something like that, or close enough. Oh, Colonel," she said somewhat more quietly.

"Yes?" he asked, curious.

"Earlier, I realised that I put you out without..." Mandi paused. "That you might need some of Nick's things to get through the next couple of days. If you have a few minutes, we can go get them."

"No need, Doctor Perry, I could..."

"No, you _couldn't_. It is nothing personal, but those are my quarters too. I'm not going to have you rummaging through my things. Besides, I know where everything is, this will be faster." The colonel nodded and followed her down the corridor.

 

"Well, if your scans are accurate, it might just be possible," Nicholas Rush said, leaning back in the not terribly comfortable chair.

"They are, I ran them myself, twice," Olan told him. "So now..."

"So now the trick is managing to channel it without causing the planet to explode this time. When the Ancients developed the technology, they definitely didn't plan on blowing up a planet every time they used it. I almost had it worked out when Icarus went up, thanks to you lot.  But it leaves me recreating from memory.  If it's all the same, _I'd_ like to avoid more explosions if I can, assuming you aren't planning to put a bullet in me head the moment I've finished," he said, looking the other man over appraisingly.

"No, of course not, Kiva wouldn't.." the man paused, observing the disbelief on the other man's face. "You are too valuable. I'm sure that she will keep you around if you help us. She's not..."

"No offence, but I'm not feelin' trusting, especially of someone who's willing to do in one of her own people to make a point," Rush reminded him.

"She didn't intend..." the other man said, but as he did, a hand went up to his throat where the bruises from earlier stood out against his skin. Inwardly, Rush smiled. Olan was not ready, not yet, to turn on Kiva. But he was starting to have his doubts, the scientist could see it. Unfortunately, Rush understood well the lessons of loyalty and the disappointment that came with betrayal, he had just learned them much earlier in life.

When he was small, he's spent most of his time making excuses for his father, staying loyal, even after the third time the old bastard had taken the food money and spent it on drink, or when they were sleeping rough because he'd not paid, and they'd been put out again, or when he'd gambled away the assistance check and been too drunk to pick up some day work at the docks. Even after the man had left Nick to live with his aunts, telling him that he'd be back to bring him home, later, when he was in a better place.

Rush had held on to that loyalty until the night of his seventh birthday. His aunts had given him some money and all young Nicholas wanted was to go with his father to a movie and have some dinner, nothing fancy, chippie, hamburger restaurant, he didn't care. He remembered too the look of sympathy on his aunts' faces as he waited. At the time, he'd kind of thought they were expecting his father not to show up, or to be late, but the boy had faith. He was going to show them, and when his father showed up, the boy was elated.

But his father being the man he was, he'd got sidetracked by a floating craps game. "Come on, lad," he'd said. "Give it here, I'll double it and then we'll have a second evening, or maybe something else." Reluctantly, he'd handed it over, and watched as his father had lost the whole thing and more, then offered him up as collateral. "No use to me, ye can have 'im, use 'im. He's fast on his feet, make a good runner."

At that moment, Nick had known, and then he'd proved his father right, twisting out of the old bastard's hands and running back to his aunts' house crying. The two women had given him his dinner and a small cake they had baked him. The old man didn't bother to try to come around again, either. Malcolm Rush had not had custody of his son since he'd dropped him off for a visit and not come back for two years.

After that, Nick trusted no one but himself and his aunts (though even with them, he was always waiting for betrayal). When his father returned after their deaths, Nick had known better than to trust him, and since his father was prone to be free with his fists when he was drunk, which was any time he had enough money, Nick had learned to duck, run, and eventually, to fight back. But none of this was important. Important was the first crack between Olan and the Lucian Alliance, specifically, Kiva, had shown, now he just needed to widen it, carefully.

"Now, best show me what ye're engineers have done about recreating the power interface. That's the dodgy part."

 

"So, I'll just grab his shower kit and some clothes..." Telford said as he followed Amanda Perry into the quarters she shared with Nicholas Rush and straight into...

" _Rush_?" Telford questioned in shock. But no, this wasn't Rush. The suit, the cane, it was impossible...It was... " _Gold_?" he asked as his brain stuttered. He'd seen the pictures, but nothing had prepared him and besides it was impossible.

"Well, right the second time out of two, better late than never, dearie," the man said. And then Telford stopped thinking at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I hope everyone enjoys the new addition. You know what to do....


	10. Infiltration

 

"There." Rumplestiltskin said, looking down with a certain amount of distaste, having changed into Rush's clothes. But it was what he was _expected_ to look like. "I'll have to keep the spell on my leg, but it's limited magic."

"Is that...I mean is there going to be an issue with you using too much?" Mandi asked. She was still having certain amount of difficulties dealing with the situation, ones that started with the word 'magic'. It _was_ fascinating, she agreed with Nick on that, and it came in handy, especially when he'd learned to do what he called 'loaves and fishes', a little bit of magic that caused certain critical supplies to refill without anyone noticing what was happening. His experiments with food had been less successful, though he'd not blown up anything, not in a couple of weeks. But no one on the crew had been too unhappy with the box of restaurant grape jelly packets that had been 'found' in a crate full of miscellaneous...things.

"It looks like someone just shoved whatever came to hand into the closest open box," Greer had said. Considering the chaos of the evacuation, it was an explanation that wasn't hard for anyone to swallow.

"I _hate_ grape jelly," Rush had confided to her. "Was aiming for honey."

"At least it wasn't bees?" she'd suggested. But Mandi was still trying to figure what was and wasn't possible. Her first question had been if there was no way to just either magically separate them, to bypass communications somehow, or barring that, transport Telford's body, with Nick inside, back to Destiny. Unfortunately, the sorcerer had explained to her, for the first part, he didn't understand enough about how the stones _worked_ to risk it, and the second...he wasn't certain he could, for the same reason that they had sent Nick to Storybrooke before, something to link to. Instead, they were looking for some other options. But for that, they needed more information, meaning leaving their quarters.

"Little chance of that, and, as Rush doesn't need it, and cannot access it anyway, I can draw off him. Telford won't notice."

They all looked at the man, stretched out in the corner of the room, as Mandi flat refused to have him in their bed. "Just no," she'd said after failing to articulate her objections clearly. The two men had shrugged and moved him to where he currently rested. They'd also considered moving him into one of the many other empty rooms on the corridor, but it would mean the risk of being seen by a wandering Kino, besides, they were going to need him later. "So, you can use him like a battery?" the scientist asked.

"Something like that," he replied. But for now, they had some time, and they couldn't just stay where they were.

"Jefferson?" Mandi asked, as she looked around at the Hatter, who had changed into fatigues, but still looked the same to her.

"It's done," Rumplestiltskin assured her. "You can see him as he is because you already know. But the rest will see him and discount him. It's a bit of a 'hide in plain sight' sort of thing. They will see him, but only as one of the military men, not one they know well, someone they see in passing. Do you understand?"

"Okay, I think so. We will have to try to avoid Lieutenant Scott, he knows all the military personnel really well. So now what?"

"Now we go and see what information there is. Then I am going to have to do something unfortunate to Colonel Telford."

"So nothing new there then," Jefferson joked.

"Just no snails," Mandi requested, not entirely sure she could believe that she was joking about this. "I'd like Nick to get his body back with the same number of limbs he left with."

"Oh, I wouldn't do that, you never know the side effects with those blasted stones in play. Besides, it's not Rush's body I need, it's Telford's mind. I just need the right information so I can ask the right questions. So, shall we?" He gestured towards the door.

"Remember, Young's first name is Everett, and they've been friends forever.. They've been trying to work things out now that Telford is himself again. Be careful about getting stuck with him for too long, I don't know enough to help," Mandi told him as they left the room, leaving Rush's body, and Telford's mind sleeping on the floor behind them.

 

"We need a good way to test those relays," Nicholas Rush said, looking at the engineer who had been tasked with the job of building the equipment necessary, or rather, heavily modifying the cobbled together equipment they had gotten (stolen) from who knew where. "Right now, I've not got faith that this lot will handle even routine Stargate operations, or not more than once. First thing we need to do is fire it up and see if they are going to hold."

"And you think we would trust _you_ to dial a stargate?" One of the three men who was gathered with Rush, a creepy little weasel named Simeon, sneered. No scientist, he was acting as Rush's current guard, and he gave Nick a bad feeling. He didn't think the man was playing with a full deck, unless it was all jokers, but that was Kiva's problem, none of his. "What kind of fools do you take us for?"

"I'll have to get back to you on that second question. I'm reserving judgement," Rush shot back, unwilling to be cowed. Simeon looked like he was about to take a swing at the scientist, but Olan stepped between them. "But no, I don't think you are going to trust me to dial the gate, and it would defeat the purpose. While someone is dialling, I will be right back there." He pointed over to the workstation they had assigned him. "Monitoring the power flow and seeing where we need to make adjustments, not to mention trying to balance the load if any of the power relays start to overload. So, who is going to go ask Kiva where she wants to dial up? I need an open connection for at least five minutes, ten would be better, assuming it'll hold. Wouldn't want to have it drop while someone, or several someones, while they were in transit, now would we?" He glared at the other man.

"I'll go," Olan volunteered. "I can explain what we need and why we need to do it." He gave Simeon a look which confirmed Rush's impression that he wasn't the only one that thought there was something wrong with his current guard. Privately, Rush was not all that keen for Olan to go, he wasn't sure who was going to guard him against Simeon. The man was slippery.

"Best get on with it, then. _Destiny_ could go back into FTL at any time, and Telford would be as useful for this as tits on a bull. So either we hurry up, or we wait until after. Now let's check the relays. How many back ups do you have?" he asked the engineer, ignoring Simeon, while Olan hurried off.

 

"Don't forget, you _like_ each other," Mandi hissed under her breath as they went into the mess.

"David, where have you been?" Young asked instantly. "Doctor Jackson is back to see if you've gotten any further on narrowing down where to look. The _Hammond_ is standing by on alert as soon as we can tell her where to go."

"Colonel, where _is_ Daniel? I need to give him the information Nick sent us," Mandi asked. Jefferson took himself towards the food, though he had no desire, or intention of actually trying to _eat_ it. It was entirely camouflage.

"He went looking for you. Try the conference room," Young replied. "So..."

"I need to spend some more time with those star charts...c...Everett. I think I might be close to something. How long until we...go back into FTL?" he asked. Harder to present to be the man they thought he was without the irritating scientist whispering suggestions and directions in his ear, not that it would necessarily help in this case.

"Eli, how much time is left on the clock?" Young asked his radio.

"One hour and eight minutes. The team is starting to send stuff up. Greer says they've found some good stuff. We've got all the water jugs filled, they are coming back now and some...not sure if they're fruits or vegetables, but they are something, and he says they are edible. Not sure about that part. They've also found some big birds, like turkey sized. He and Scott are going to see if they can shoot some."

"Thanksgiving early, I can go for it," Young replied with a smile that was reflected on the faces of everyone in earshot.

 _Saves me wasting magic on food_ , Rumplestiltskin thought philosophically, as he watched several people stand up immediately and scrape their gruel into the bin, including Jefferson. "Let's go take a look at those charts," the sorcerer said, trying for what he hoped was a friendly smile and not a grimace.

"Yeah, nothing personal David, but as much as I like having you here, I need Rush back." He slapped the other man on the back, a move that would almost have ended with the colonel as a snail were it not for the greatest control on the part of the sorcerer.

"No offence taken. I just...I need to take care of something quickly. I'll meet you in the control interface room." He nodded slightly to Jefferson. Now that he knew exactly what he needed to pull out of Telford's head, and he had the advantage of being able to poke into things the colonel didn't consciously remember, he could do it relatively quickly. Oh, it might give the man nightmares, but that was none of Rumplestiltskin's concern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope everyone is enjoying, and continues to enjoy. You know what to do...the little box is right there.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, yes this story has been in the planning stages. I was actually going to wait, but apparently the muse doesn't take 'hold on a minute' for an answer. Please read...Etc. This story is the one that takes place between 'Strange how we know each other' and 'Green Christmas', and is an alternative take on Incursion.


End file.
